


The Music or the Misery

by BabyPorcupine_CutebutDEADLY



Series: Phic Phight 2019 [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Enemies to Friends, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 05:33:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18404117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabyPorcupine_CutebutDEADLY/pseuds/BabyPorcupine_CutebutDEADLY
Summary: "Which came first - the music, or the misery?" - Fall Out Boy, "The Music or the Misery"Logically, Danny knew that ghosts were alive at some point. But it's just... hard to imagine them with lives. Then he stumbles upon Ember, staring up at the remains of a burned house.





	The Music or the Misery

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WolfsongRoar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfsongRoar/gifts).



"Got one," Danny says into the Fenton Phones after his Ghost Sense goes off. "Creepy neighborhood over by the westend of town."

 _"Roger that,"_ Sam responds. _"We're headed over there."_

Danny lands at the entrance of the abandoned neighborhood, looking around for anything off— ghostly cackling, people screaming, a spectral tail disappearing around a corner. Nothing catches his eye. There's not really much of _anything_ here. It doesn't look like there's been anyone living in any of these houses for at least a decade. 

The decrepit house nearest to him has been completely reclaimed by nature, windows busted and vines crawling out of them to wrap around the front of the porch.The grass and wild plants on the lawn are almost waist-high from the looks of it.The other homes are in similar shape.

Ugh. Of course this ghost has to make his life more difficult. It sucks when he has to go _looking_ for the culprit, because that typically results in nasty surprises. It's almost worse than when they're out and about, wreaking havoc and causing chaos and whatnot. He was hoping this would be a quick thing, but it's not looking like it's going to turn out like — wait. 

He spots a glow that's unmistakably a ghostly aura, reflecting off of the empty rusted husk of a car that's definitely seen better days. Kinda creepy, to be honest, but that's definitely his target. The glow is coming from around the corner of the house up ahead. He charges up an ecto blast in one hand and approaches. 

It's Ember. 

She's just... sitting there, in the space between the two houses, her back against the home behind her and an arm resting on the knee drawn up close to her body. She stares up at a window of the neighboring house. Her trademark guitar is off to the side, propped beside her. 

The home she's so interested in seems like it's the most worse off in the neighborhood. It's badly burned and the entire upper section of the building has collapsed in on itself in a rotting cascadeof burned wood and building material.

Ember startles at the sight of him, but sighs and turns back to the house after a second. 

"I'm not looking for a fight, kid.Promise." 

"Um. Okay?" Danny's not quite sure what to think. He's still on his guard, but she doesn't _seem_ like she's lying to him. She just looks... sad. It almost feels like he should leave her alone, like he's intruding on a private moment. But he can't just leave her here. Right? She's not supposed to be in the human world. At the same time, though, the situation seems entirely too serious for her whole 'let's start a youth revolution' thing...

Seconds tick by. He remembers Sam and Tucker are on their way, and turns away from Ember to buzz into the Fenton phones. "Hey, you guys. Uh. Could you let me deal with this one alone?" 

 _"What, why? We're almost there. Are you okay?"_ Tucker's tinny voice responds. 

"Yeah, I just... it seems kinda personal."

 _"Personal? Is..."_ Sam hesitates. _"Is Dan back?"_

"No! No, not personal to _me._ Look, I'll explain later, but just trust me on this one, okay? I'll promise I'll call if there's trouble." 

" _Copy that,"_  Tucker says.

 _"Don't do anything stupid,"_ Sam adds. The line falls silent. 

"I already said I'm not gonna cause any trouble," Ember grumbles as Danny steps forward. She tenses as he gets closer, but he just plops down next to her.

"I believe you," Danny responds quietly. "I'm just sitting. I dunno. If you wanna talk or something?"

"What if I want to be left alone?" she asks, eyeing him. He hesitates, and she tips her head back against the wood behind her. "Figures. You can stay here, if it'll make you feel better to keep an eye on me, but I'm not... I wouldn't pull anything. Not here." 

"What's so special about here?"

She nods at the house in front of them. "That's where I died. "

"...oh." 

"Yeah. Haven't been here for a while, but I felt a pull, so. I think it's my death day. I don't know, time is weird."

Danny stares. "Your... death day?" 

"Yeah. You know. The day I died?" 

"I get it, but... I didn't know..." 

"You didn't know that a ghost's death day is a big deal?" 

"Well. Yeah." 

Danny knows that most ghosts used to be people, too. After all, they're _ghosts;_ their entire schtick is that there's something tying them to the world of the living. At the same time... he's never tried to imagine them as actual people. People with families and dreams and  experiences and _lives._

He instantly feels more aware of his human half. Questions that feel too insensitive to ask burn in his brain, so instead he asks:

"Are you okay?"

Ember turns and raises any eyebrow at him. "Am I 'okay'?"

"Um. Yes?" He feels awkward again, having asked, but it felt right in the moment. Now it just feels stupid. 

She frowns at her lap, seeming like she's genuinely contemplating. "I don't know if I'm okay. I mean. I'm dead. But I'm still around, so I guess that's better off than a lot of other people?" 

"True," Danny says. 

"But I'm also angry." 

The dangerous note in her voice is sudden and she clenches her fists. Danny almost charges up an ectoblast out of instinct. "Angry at what?" 

"At how I died. I'm just..." She trails off and thumps her head against the house behind her. The anger bleeds away as quickly as it had appeared, leaving resignation in its place. "I'm _so_ mad. It wasn't fair. I thought... I thought someone had finally cared about me, you know?" 

Dread wounds its way through his chest. Danny wants to ask what happened, if only to confirm or deny what her comment made him suspect. You don't just ask a ghost how they died, though. It's disrespectful. If she wants to tell him, she will. 

"Have you ever felt tired enough to sleep through an earthquake?" she asks.

"Yeah?" Danny responds, vaguely remembering the days before the slightest abnormal sound had him on the defensive but not understanding what that has to do with her story.  

"That was me that night." She's looking up at the burned portion of the house again, but she's clearly no longer in the present. "I, uh. I got stood up. Some popular guy asked me out, and well... I think I was probably depressed, back then, and no one really talked to me at school. It wasn't like bullying or anything, I was just, like, ignored. So the fact that he was being _nice_ to me made me... I dunno, I latched onto it. It was just a prank to him, of course, the whole idea was that he'd never show up."

"That's _terrible."_ And it sounds exactly like something Paulina would do, if the idea ever occurred to her.

Ember huffs an unamused laugh. "Yeah, well. He didn't think so. I stayed at the theater he was supposed to meet me until. I dunno, sometime the next morning. I finally gave up and went home, and fell asleep. Our fire alarm didn't work, and the fire didn't wake me up until it was too late to get out."  

Now Danny's staring at the burned part of the house, too. Is that where her room was? What were her last thoughts? How long was she trapped before she... died? His own accident, the one that turned him half-ghost... the electricity was excruciating _,_ and that had only lasted a few seconds. She'd been _burned alive_ _._   

"I wish I'd had someone, then," Ember says quietly. "A friend. I don't know. It would have been nice to show someone the songs I wrote." She gives Danny a sidelong glance. "You've got some pretty cool friends, you know that?" 

"Yeah... Yeah, I really do."   

"Don't let them go." 

There's another silence. A soft wind starts up, and the tattered remains of a curtain in the burned out room flutters sluggishly. The silence is almost comfortable, until— 

"I really wanted to kill him, when I woke up as a ghost."

She somehow sounds even _more_ tired as she says it, which Danny didn't think was possible.   

"I think about it a lot. I didn't come back for a long time, and by the time I did... I mean. He's an adult now, he has a partner and they have kids... and he's a _great_ dad. I think that's what frustrates me the most, you know? As an adult, he's a _good_ person. I don't understand how he could be the same guy who stood me up because he thought it was funny _."_

Her fingers reach to her other side, brushing softly over her guitar. "And like, I really don't even understand why I'm still here. Existing. I mean, I got my dream. I'm a rockstar, I have fans... that's all I wanted. Right? So what am I still _doing_ here? Why can't I move on?"

She looks at him, almost pleading, like she's expecting him to have an answer. The words 'I'm sorry,' are trapped just behind his lips. They feel inadequate, but he opens his mouth in the hopes that something comforting will come out. Nothing comes out. She seems to search his gaze for a long moment, before chuckling sadly and turning back to the house once again. 

"Dunno why I'm complaining to you. You can't do anything about it."

"I..." He hesitates. "You can stay. For as long as you need." 

She blinks. "What?" 

"I... I won't send you back to the Ghost Zone," he says, feeling stupider the more he speaks, so of course that means he keeps talking. "For now, I guess, but. I mean. You don't have to worry about that. For now." He has to make an effort to stop talking.

She snorts, rolling her eyes. "Thanks, I guess."

"Yep."

Silence again. He's still trying to come up with something to say, but nothing comes. 

"Your friends are probably looking for you. You should go find them."

"You sure? I don't mind staying, if you want company. You shouldn't be alone, if you don't want to be."

"I've been alone before, kid. I'm used to it." Somehow, that hits Danny the hardest, out of everything she's said in the entire conversation. "It was nice talking and all, I guess, but... I don't really need you. You can't be everyone's hero." 

The comment kinds stings, that she doesn't 'need' him when he wants to help, but he's also probably incredibly selfish for feeling that way. He stands, and she mock solutes him. He mimics the motion back. He starts to walk away, but stops before turning the corner. 

"I, uh. I know you were alone before... it happened. And I know you don't really have any reason to trust me. But no one deserves to be alone, so, um..." Ugh. Nothing is coming out right. He turns to her. "I'm willing to be friends, if you'd like."

"Thanks for the offer, but... I don't know how..." Her voice breaks, and for alarming second she seems like she's going to cry. She clears her throat, and tries again. "You wouldn't have wanted to be my friend if we didn't have this conversation. You just feel bad, and I don't need your pity." 

"I mean... Okay. But also, your music's pretty cool and I've kind of always wanted to learn how to play guitar." 

"Oh." 

"I'm literally tone-deaf." 

"That phrase makes no sense in this context, tone isn't something— okay. Fine. I mean, I see what you're doing, but you need to be musically enlightened so I'll let it slide." 

"Alright." He lets a small smile twitch at his mouth. "We should set up lessons some time." 

"See you around." 

He turns to leave again, feeling better this time. 

"Hey, Danny?" 

He pauses, surprised at the use of his name. "Yeah?" 

"Thanks." 

There's no sarcasm, no snark this time, it's just... sincerity. He smiles, and flies off. 

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from Wolfsongroar / Wolfsong / Wolfsongroar : 
> 
> Ashes (death mentions tw) - Ember is in town, but she doesn't want attention or revenge or power. Instead, as she stands outside the remains of a building long burned down, all she needs is someone to talk to. 


End file.
